Can we please get back on topic now?? This is getting a bit silly now Anyway would you care to share your D700 impression Greg??

LOL, I'd love to George, but I'm afraid I'd attract the wrong kind of attention, just as this thread has done. I won't go into too much detail, but in a nutshell;

Viewfinder; blows anything else I've used away. You could think of it like shooting with a dark curtain around your viewfinder, suddenly being taken away.

Build; solid, grip is perfect for heavier glass. I originally thought the D80 was more comfortable, and it is, but only for consumer glass like my 18-70 that I sold. As soon as you go to heavier glass the grip wasn't large enough. So for larger/heavier lenses, the D700 is top notch. It's weather sealed as well. I never really worried with my D80 so I won't with this either. At the same time I don't shoot in the rain, and if I needed to I'd have some sort of cover arranged.

AF; for what I use it for, baptisms/christenings, in church lighting, it's great. I don't use more than single point because that's the only option that makes sense when you're using single servo af, and shooting static objects. With moving object, the 51 pt 3D tracking is sweet as anything but in low light there's not enough contrast for it to be truely effective. For the sort of lighting in sports stadiums though I've heard it's awesome.

The most important part about the af is focus acquisition, it just snaps into focus so much faster than my D80. It's near instantaneous.

With regard to focusing with non af-s lenses, like my 35mm F2D, focus speed is also pretty impressive. I can see why there was no real improvement in focus speed with the new af-s 35mm or the 50mm af-s. The glass is so light, that it really doesn't take much effort for the D700's motor to track from one end of the focus to the other. The D80 wasn't this fast, not by a mile. As for af noise, it's all balony. Unless you are shooting in a church where nobody is talking (including the priest) and you aren't taking pictures, (the shutter release makes more noise than the af motor) then it won't cause anyone to notice you. Don't forget it takes just under a second to focus from the one end to the other. You aren't going to be going from one end of the focusing range to the other shot after shot.

Buffer and shooting speed; coming from the d80 the D700's 5fps is more than enough. I rarely use 5fps. I've only held the shutter down once just to try it. I normally have my D700 set to single shot.

The screen is also awesome. If you've compared the D80 screen to the older D50 or D70 screen, then you'll know what I mean. It's just no comparison, not to say that the D80's screen is bad, it's just not this good.

At the end of the day, you can go on and on about what camera does what, and what the other camera doesn't have, but the real question is, will you actually use those extra features on a daily basis? The answer is probably not. I don't shoot in the wild, so you could say I don't need the build. I haven't shot any sports yet, so you could say I don't need the 51 point AF. I wanted to be able to shoot in churches without flash if I needed to. I don't shoot at Iso 6400 every day. The highest I've had to take it is 3200. But the option to do so is there. At the same time, we all love the latest and greatest. So this is what I got. All the extra things like the viewfinder, the screen, the focus speed, all just make using this thing even more of a pleasure. Everyone has different needs and preferences. There really is no point knocking the other systems as each system has their strong points.

CaNot, Noikan or whatever!! can we just hold the horses here for a second as it sound like we are trying to protect the companies in which we use so much.

Ive used both they are as good as each other, And the long winded AF debate is a little long in the tooth. Canons 9 covers the exact same area as Nikons 51 only that nikon has more points to illustrate this.

I have a friend who shoots with Nikon Professionally (d3) he even gets equipment etc free from them and is waiting for his free d3x to be delivered (luck him). Anyways i was talking to him about the AF debate and this is what he told me (remeber coming from a Nikon Pro, just like Joe Mc).

"Nikon's 51 focus system is a fan-dangled ploy into grabbing the new and naive photogs who are buying new systems. They think because Nikon has 51 it is so much better but thats a lot of bleep, and don't we all use single shot or manual anyways. So by grabbing these new customers they are then anchored into getting nikon lenses, and blam thats where they have grabbed them by the nuts, nikon haven't the best lens collection Canon do, watch"

he then grabs a canon 24mmL with nikon mount from his bag fits it to his camera and winks and says "best fine art camera you could ever have"

Oh and gregg saying that the 5D is a slow camera is some very strong words, maybe you boss has a duff copy cause mine is super fast in low light, matches my old if not slower d700 (canon did some super tweaking to my 5d a few weeks ago)

CaNot, Noikan or whatever!! can we just hold the horses here for a second as it sound like we are trying to protect the companies in which we use so much.

Ive used both they are as good as each other, And the long winded AF debate is a little long in the tooth. Canons 9 covers the exact same area as Nikons 51 only that nikon has more points to illustrate this.

I have a friend who shoots with Nikon Professionally (d3) he even gets equipment etc free from them and is waiting for his free d3x to be delivered (luck him). Anyways i was talking to him about the AF debate and this is what he told me (remeber coming from a Nikon Pro, just like Joe Mc).

"Nikon's 51 focus system is a fan-dangled ploy into grabbing the new and naive photogs who are buying new systems. They think because Nikon has 51 it is so much better but thats a lot of bleep, and don't we all use single shot or manual anyways. So by grabbing these new customers they are then anchored into getting nikon lenses, and blam thats where they have grabbed them by the nuts, nikon haven't the best lens collection Canon do, watch"

he then grabs a canon 24mmL with nikon mount from his bag fits it to his camera and winks and says "best fine art camera you could ever have"

Oh and gregg saying that the 5D is a slow camera is some very strong words, maybe you boss has a duff copy cause mine is super fast in low light, matches my old if not slower d700 (canon did some super tweaking to my 5d a few weeks ago)

uhm, I've heard the exact opposite - that it's very accurate but not that fast

I haven't got any experience with the D700 but having handled some 5D mk2s, I can say that I felt it was even a little slower than my 50D - that's no definite verdict of course, I think Orsan can comment much better on that subject.

What I can say though is that I would really REALLY like some more AF points on all the Canons. No need for 51 (at least for me) but something around 20 would be very useful. I often find myself trying to focus the eyes of my subject and often enough they're placed exactly in between the centre and top/bottom (camera in portrait format) point...

uhm, I've heard the exact opposite - that it's very accurate but not that fast

I haven't got any experience with the D700 but having handled some 5D mk2s, I can say that I felt it was even a little slower than my 50D - that's no definite verdict of course, I think Orsan can comment much better on that subject.

What I can say though is that I would really REALLY like some more AF points on all the Canons. No need for 51 (at least for me) but something around 20 would be very useful. I often find myself trying to focus the eyes of my subject and often enough they're placed exactly in between the centre and top/bottom (camera in portrait format) point...

As others have said, it's not OMG 51 AF POINTS!! It's 51 point 3D TRACKING. An altogether different 'feature' that is useful for tracking subjects in sports like football, basketball and so on. Hope we won't have to hear any more 'but we don't neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeed 51 AF points'. I don't use 51 AF points. I DO use 51 point 3D TRACKING.

Ye ye I'm aware that you don't see those 51 points and it's mostly used for 3D tracking, and there's no doubt that this is a great feature, especially for sports and action! I'm just saying that I personally don't need that - what I do need though is a greater choice of AF points to get my focus exactly where I want it.

Ye ye I'm aware that you don't see those 51 points and it's mostly used for 3D tracking, and there's no doubt that this is a great feature, especially for sports and action! I'm just saying that I personally don't need that - what I do need though is a greater choice of AF points to get my focus exactly where I want it.

That's the thing though, why would you actually bother to write a post, in a thread that's meant to be about the D700, stating 'I don't need that'? You don't see me writing in threads about the 85 1.2L, 'I don't need f1.2'. Get what I'm saying? I know it's a forum, freedom of speech etc etc, but I mean, obviously not everybody needs or cares about 51 point 3d tracking, otherwise we'd all be rushing out to buy 'that camera with the 51 point 3d tracking'. It just seems as much as people who own Nikon DSLR's with that feature, are saying how much they like it, there's always people from the canon crowd jumping on the thread saying they don't need it. Oh well, I suppose that's what forum's are all about. End of rant.

I've no idea why you're jumping on me like that.. you're now just putting things in my mouth I never intended to say.

Let me get this clear for you: I never meant to say "nobody needs 3D tracking and the 5Dmk2 is a better camera". As a matter of fact, I'd probably prefer a D700 to the 5D myself.. I just wanted to leave a comment on your statement about the D700 speed compared to the one of the 5Dmk2 and add that I see the big number of AF points as a big ADVANTAGE of the D700 over the 5D. No idea how you get the impression of me saying that nobody needs those points, as I was actually trying to state the exact opposite?! The only thing I said was I personally don't need tracking. One more time for you: Personally. And I would still like to have that vast choice of Points. One more time for you: I'd like to have as many points as the D700

you're just twisting my words in such a way that you feel offended by them - carry on if you want to get yourself annoyed but don't blame others for that. Jeez...

I've no idea why you're jumping on me like that.. you're now just putting things in my mouth I never intended to say.

Let me get this clear for you: I never meant to say "nobody needs 3D tracking and the 5Dmk2 is a better camera". As a matter of fact, I'd probably prefer a D700 to the 5D myself.. I just wanted to leave a comment on your statement about the D700 speed compared to the one of the 5Dmk2 and add that I see the big number of AF points as a big ADVANTAGE of the D700 over the 5D. No idea how you get the impression of me saying that nobody needs those points, as I was actually trying to state the exact opposite?! The only thing I said was I personally don't need tracking. One more time for you: Personally. And I would still like to have that vast choice of Points. One more time for you: I'd like to have as many points as the D700

you're just twisting my words in such a way that you feel offended by them - carry on if you want to get yourself annoyed but don't blame others for that. Jeez...

Didn't mean to make it sound like I was blaming you in particular dude. Was just making a general 'take it with a pinch of salt' statement.

you're just twisting my words in such a way that you feel offended by them - carry on if you want to get yourself annoyed but don't blame others for that. Jeez...

Yeah Gregg you gota chill (we all gota chill infact)or read things the right way, as ive said to you in the past it is harder to understand things written down then being spoken, just like when you took things the wrong way and instantly BANNED me from your page on flickr, me the most harmless and liberal member on flickr.

you're just twisting my words in such a way that you feel offended by them - carry on if you want to get yourself annoyed but don't blame others for that. Jeez...

Yeah Gregg you gota chill (we all gota chill infact)or read things the right way, as ive said to you in the past it is harder to understand things written down then being spoken, just like when you took things the wrong way and instantly BANNED me from your page on flickr, me the most harmless and liberal member on flickr.

Anyway Greg (and this isn't for greg this is for all you internet go-ers)if you're blocking people on flickr now because you misinterpreted something or in fact they said something mean and you block them for it? then whats the difference between you and that **********(insert bad words there) on youtube that has "Channel Rules" (uhg I hate him)

/Rant

_________________Jake O'Connell, 40D CrewCanon EOS 40D | 28-135mm IS | 50mm f/1.8 |Vivitar DF 383 | Vivitar 285hvMy Flickrmy Blog"Photography isn't so much about the results as it is the collective experience, your interactions with people and with the world"

you're just twisting my words in such a way that you feel offended by them - carry on if you want to get yourself annoyed but don't blame others for that. Jeez...

Yeah Gregg you gota chill (we all gota chill infact)or read things the right way, as ive said to you in the past it is harder to understand things written down then being spoken, just like when you took things the wrong way and instantly BANNED me from your page on flickr, me the most harmless and liberal member on flickr.

Anyway Greg (and this isn't for greg this is for all you internet go-ers)if you're blocking people on flickr now because you misinterpreted something or in fact they said something mean and you block them for it? then whats the difference between you and that **********(insert bad words there) on youtube that has "Channel Rules" (uhg I hate him)

/Rant

It's up to you whether you take a comment such as 'maybe now you've got a D700 you'll start taking decent pictures' as a joke or not. I chose to remove and prevent any more comments like those. Maybe Orsan will take it as a lesson that just because you say something as a joke, doesn't mean the other person will see your sense of 'humour' and nor do they have to.

I think this thread can pretty much be locked admins as there's nothing being added here of any use and it's all going way off topic.

you're just twisting my words in such a way that you feel offended by them - carry on if you want to get yourself annoyed but don't blame others for that. Jeez...

Yeah Gregg you gota chill (we all gota chill infact)or read things the right way, as ive said to you in the past it is harder to understand things written down then being spoken, just like when you took things the wrong way and instantly BANNED me from your page on flickr, me the most harmless and liberal member on flickr.

Anyway Greg (and this isn't for greg this is for all you internet go-ers)if you're blocking people on flickr now because you misinterpreted something or in fact they said something mean and you block them for it? then whats the difference between you and that **********(insert bad words there) on youtube that has "Channel Rules" (uhg I hate him)

/Rant

It's up to you whether you take a comment such as 'maybe now you've got a D700 you'll start taking decent pictures' as a joke or not. I chose to remove and prevent any more comments like those. Maybe Orsan will take it as a lesson that just because you say something as a joke, doesn't mean the other person will see your sense of 'humour' and nor do they have to.

I think this thread can pretty much be locked admins as there's nothing being added here of any use and it's all going way off topic.

DUDE! here are still putting blame on Orsan man, jeez. He doesn't need to learn a lesson you're being a bit to like you're the authorities on things here man. lets all just back off.

_________________Jake O'Connell, 40D CrewCanon EOS 40D | 28-135mm IS | 50mm f/1.8 |Vivitar DF 383 | Vivitar 285hvMy Flickrmy Blog"Photography isn't so much about the results as it is the collective experience, your interactions with people and with the world"